


Other Notable Changing Moons

by BurrSquee, Tikor



Series: Castebook: Changing Moon [9]
Category: Exalted
Genre: Gen, Lunars, Roleplaying Character, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-17 04:23:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13069053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurrSquee/pseuds/BurrSquee, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tikor/pseuds/Tikor
Summary: A sampling of Changing Moon characters.





	Other Notable Changing Moons

**Author's Note:**

> Daring Swords depicted by the talented akevia! We used  
> [artistsnclients](https://artistsnclients.com/people/akevia) to get in touch for the commission.

**Daring Swords**  
The Lunar Daring Swords has given the Swords of Luna dozens of centuries of service at the edge of the world. Out in the Wyld, journeying between Raksha courts, evading roving Unshaped, understanding things stranger still, he provides intelligence to the Swords of Luna so that they can focus their strength not only against the most pressing threats from beyond the world, but also to engage them with proper preparations against their weaknesses of character. The Swords of Luna are the main conduit for this information, but Daring Swords has long since abandoned keeping them as the sole beneficiaries.

When the Dragon-Blooded perimeter defense forces no longer enjoyed the sanction and Celestial might of the broken Deliberative after the Usurpation, the threat of overwhelming force from the destroyed or insufficiently maintained Titan-class skyships was undermined. Worse, the perimeter forces were repeatedly called away from their stations. They were frequently caught up in the Shogunate’s many succession struggles. Daring Swords heard the creatures of the Wyld notice these weaknesses, plotting their revenge against shape even with the Daystar in the sky. He gave information to any who he thought would counter threats from the Wyld, even some Wyld Hunts who would have happily hunted him down as Anathema if they knew his true nature. His mastery of disguise honed against horrors beyond the world was equal to the task of deceiving a few Dragon-Blooded and their mortal armies, so he enjoyed watching the results of his intelligence sharing. Marching into battle without Celestial leadership yet still achieving victory gave him a grudging respect for Dragon-Blooded valor.

Of course, predicting the Wyld and native creatures from that realm of endless possibility is never perfect. After gaining actionable intelligence on the Fair Folk’s raids and invasions for hundreds of years, Daring Swords felt he knew all of their deceptions and appetites. But no matter how well one comes to know the Raksha, one cannot assume they’ll follow the same pattern in the future. Daring Swords learned that lesson when the Balorian Crusade evaded his notice, eventually sweeping over large portions of Creation with the taint of the Wyld.

When the Balorian Crusade was shattered by the Imperial Manse, Daring Swords resolved to learn the secret to its use. Merely informing on the Raksha was no longer sufficient - he concluded that he needed the key to push them from Creation if a second Crusade ever appeared. He, like nearly all Lunars of the time, thought the Imperial Manse would only function under Solar control. When it was proven to be deployable without their presence in the world, he became obsessed with knowing how.

Daring Swords still informs the Swords of Luna on Wyld threats, and even joins them on the battlefield when every hand is called for. However, now he does so only when asked, and then only for a blood-debt due to the priority he has placed on the Sword of Creation. When not on mission for the Swords he spends his time in the Imperial City, the heart of the Scarlet Prefecture, poking at the outer defenses of the Imperial Manse, or the Orichalcum Shrine as older records name it. He knows now that it is only the trigger to the awesome power of the Sword of Creation - a trigger he obsesses over learning how to press.

As an elder Lunar, he is a well-respected asset among his chosen faction, so he is called upon frequently, delaying his work but for a cause that he deems worth the time. Daring Swords keeps count of the blood-debts and the few life-debts owed, and believes he has enough debt marks on enough powerful Lunars for a successful assault on the Imperial Manse. But gaining entry by force would be worthless until he knows the secrets inside, so Daring Swords continues to investigate.

He takes geomantic measurements, consults with the Mountain Folk who have seen its powersource deep within the Imperial Mountain, and speaks with the spirits who guard the area. None of these efforts have so far granted him entry, let alone the ability to fire the Sword of Creation, so he persists. Of course, some observations he cannot take directly, even aided by his many disguises. Openly measuring the Scarlet Empress’ personal Manse with Essence tools could alert Dragon-Blooded or worse, Sidereal suspicion. Even though security has been exceptionally light these last five years, he hasn’t been baited into taking a risk that could reveal himself. Instead, he has found a kindred spirit in V’neef Bijar, who also seeks the path into the Imperial Manse hoping to unravel its secrets. He has subtly helped her path to discovery, a scribble in the margin of a book he knows she’ll read next here, a dream sent from an bought-off spirit there, hoping that if she finds her way in she’ll be too enraptured to notice the shadow that follows her inside. Or at least he’ll learn something of the traps inside from her likely death.

Outside of the Swords of Luna he is seen as overzealous and overconfident. Spending so much time on the Blessed Isle is seen as brazen… and provokes feelings of inadequacy among some Lunar elders who miss their ancient homes but dare not return. Many in the Wardens of Gaia who dabble in Wyld-energy applications suspect they have been investigated by him on unfair suspicion of treason against Creation, earning him the reputation of not respecting their privacy or autonomy. This grumbling among the Wardens of Gaia probably originates from Ma-Ha-Suchi, who was tattooed over Daring Swords’ objections. Daring Swords still considers Tammuz’ arguments in defense of the Wolf with the Red Roses a betrayal. Both elders were among the pack that went hunting for Chimera and found Ma-Ha-Suchi instead. The rumors rarely fail to mention this original motive for the hunt. In Daring Swords’ defense, no Wardens have proven Daring Swords’ infiltration of their personal territory to the Silver Pact, and the Swords have yet to launch an attack on any Wardens no matter how brazenly they experiment with the Wyld… yet.

**Gerd Marrow-Eater**  
Gerd Marrow-Eater was the first among the Twisted Stone Conclave to reach out to his home tribes, the Haslanti, and lead them on the Thousand Streams River. The first to lead the Haslanti in war, the first to leak them information they needed to advance as a nation… and the first to leave the experiment behind.

Careful of sliding even unintentionally into Arvida’s role, Gerd has spent his recent years outside of the Haslanti’s perception, tending a stretch of mountainous terrain between Gethamane and Shanarinara as his own personal domain. They are desolate and icy lands, mostly sheer rock faces blown smooth by a deadly wind, with only a few homesteads so far from each other in elevation they can go a generation without meeting. The remoteness originally drew Gerd there due to its suitability to restore the population of a race of giant eagles that Gerd favors. But once there the abundant and unclaimed places of power drew Gerd’s attention. Even though the land doesn’t provide for much succor for mortal settlement it still brims with Essence, like all of Creation. Gerd has claimed all the Demesnes and Manses there, such as the Silver-Flash Grotto, and he holds either their Hearthstones or their Essence tokens through his attunement. Most are uncapped or damaged. The potential, the challenge of restoring the damaged Manses or even capping the Demesnes himself intrigues Gerd. Having shaped a society, he’s looking to stretch his wings and try something new: shaping the land itself.

That he doesn’t know the first thing about Geomancy doesn’t daunt him. He’s leveraged his reputation of success within the Winding Path to arrange introductions to the secretive Crossroads Society, the most productive and cooperative of which has been Smaragdine Serpent-Eye. While she has helped Gerd initiate into the Terrestrial Circle (after great effort on Gerd’s part) she does not yet believe he is serious about devoting himself to the deeper mystic secrets under her command. Not enough to master them, anyway. She questions his humility, his intellect, and his will, all in her cryptic, half-mocking way. Saying she’s the most cooperative Crossroads Society member he’s met is like saying she’s the driest raindrop. No one said learning the secrets of the occult would be easy, but Gerd was hoping that a mentor would ease that difficulty, not compound it.

Being the resourceful Changing Moon that Gerd is, he’s found a social way around the problem. He’s taken on a young No Moon, Ichi-ichi Nyacha, as his pup and is attempting to get her inducted into the Crossroads Society, specifically to learn Celestial Circle sorcery. All under the guise of being the best mentor he can be, of course. If that pup happens to share some of her knowledge with him, say, in return for a small favor like a gift of her own Demesne to shape or cap, for practice, well, all the better.

**Falling Deer**  
Falling Deer, once known as Deery, is on the run, and has been since Luna’s touch. After Exalting in the Blessed Isle’s northern coastal city of Eagle’s Launch, she ran from everything she had known to the Northern Threshold. There, she was found, trialed and tattooed by an elder Lunar who happened to be a neophyte sorcerer, Gerd Marrow-Eater. But, during the tattooing, something went terribly wrong. While she did gain the Caste of the Changing Moon, her Anima Banner has never faded below Glowing. Worse, when Gerd saw this, he attempted to kill her to hide how obviously poor his sorcerous workmanship was. She managed to escape into the Wyld using her swift-hoved spirit shape, but since then she has been accumulating mutations at a rate her deteriorating mind finds horrifying. 

She fears that her time is short, that Gerd must have told other Lunars by now, even at the cost of losing face. They’ll be hunting her, just like the Dragon-Blooded of her homeland will be hunting her. No place in Creation is safe. She can hide nowhere, with her Anima constantly on display. So she journeys through the Wyld, the only place that changes often enough to hide her tracks against the Lunars she suspects are at her heels, and damn the consequences.

**Ipo**  
Ipo is the one and only pup of Lilith, one of the great warriors from before the Usurpation. Why Lilith chose to save and mentor her, even Ipo doesn’t know, but she is very grateful. Without her winged guidance to shore, death would have been certain. Or so Lilith tells her.

She was found swimming in the Inland Sea, having fallen from a slaver's ship that was taking her and her people to the Blessed Isle from their homes on the isles Okeanos. She escaped the chains of slavery only to be pushed overboard into a stormy, turbulent sea by her friends and neighbors for being Anathema, although that word had never been uttered in her village before. Dragon-blooded propaganda spewed by slavers and beasts onto enslaved, broken, and tormented people with no other options sank in, fueling their hateful action. This would have never happened with her people. She would have simply been worshiped for the goddess had become. She only hopes that the same storm that nearly drowned her protected her misguided people. But she has yet to check up on her betraying kin, instead walking the life of a Lunar in the East since her mentorship ended.

Having been tattooed as a Changing Moon, Ipo has grown under Lilith’s demanding training. Her trials were particularly impressive for one so young, having escaped from a Wyld hunt while protecting an unblooded pup, and as a result Lilith expects a great deal from her. When Ipo is not careful to live up to those expectations, Lilith changes direction like a Wyld storm, one minute a kind word and another minute a sharp blow. Between Lilith’s ever changing moods and the many mistakes of youth, Ipo has weathered her fair share of bruised egos and sharp blows, but Ipo has begun to learn the ways her of her mercurial teacher. Learned how she can go from a flying fury to poised warrior to patient storyteller all in a matter of minutes without appearing unhinged. Alongside, she’s learned her greatest abilities in her second life: the ability to read those around her and know their innermost feelings, then change herself to best exploit that emotional terrain.

It was this gift that had Lilith send Ipo to an eastern gathering hosted by Silver Python and Rain Deathflyer, announcing the return of the elder Lunar. Moreover, she was sent to gauge how her fellow Lunars felt about the ancient warrior’s return to Lunar society from her self imposed exile among beasts. If Ipo had hoped to make her attendance at the gathering quiet, she was disappointed. Many Lunars, both young and old, approached her for information on her mentor, or to offer words of advice and caution, seeming to know about her situation before she introduced herself. The unanimity of foreknowledge led Ipo to suspect someone was spying on her… or her mentor. Then telling stories. Having completed her task and reported back to Lilith of her mixed reception, Ipo finds herself left to her own devices, at least until Lilith calls upon her again with another responsibility.

Ipo holds no faction in Lunar society, none of them being worthy, as Lilith has taught her. This causes some friction with other Lunars she meets, especially ones that hold strong to their particular beliefs. For how could Ipo be holding to the true ways of Luna without a guided path? But Ipo chooses a path closer to her own heart, even at the ire of her teacher. Humanity, in its weakness and strengths, must be protected from the destructive forces that threaten Creation, not just the Fae that the Swords busy themselves with slaying, also those Exalts that are flippant and dismissive towards the merits of humankind, Lilith very much included. She feels that tending to the flock of humanity is the greatest task that has been bestowed on her by Luna.

Ipo’s spirit shape is that of a spotted dolphin, and that’s evident on her skin; the back of her arms, torso, and legs are covered with the gray dots indicative of her true form. She can be found roaming the East with her companions, learning the beauties and dangers of Creation, trying to maintain her humanity along the way. Remaining humble may be harder than her lingering mortal expectations due to the supernatural company she’s been keeping - a trio of Solars hiding their natures in the East.


End file.
